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There are many great things in this life, but discovering new acts, especially on Spinnup (we’re very honest about being biased), is up there with one of the greatest. About two weeks ago we were cruising Spotify and had some gorgeous artwork catch our eye. Yes, good artwork gets attention, just read this post.

We clicked play on French band Mezzanine‘s debut release, a self-titled two track single, and they did not disappoint. ‘Above The Sun‘ is a gorgeous track drenched in sunny guitar chords and relaxed vocals – the kind of sound that makes you think of summer no matter how cold and wet the corner of London is that you’re writing this article from. But I digress…

The band have released a trippy colour-fuelled video to accompany the track, shot in a retro style that reminds you of VHS home movies of your holidays from the 90s. If you’re reading this and were born after 1995 you won’t know what I’m referring to.

As I write this ‘Above The Sun’ has already accumulated over 18,000 streams on Spotify – not bad for a debut release! We can’t wait to see what the band will put out next, but in the meantime we’ll be playing this on repeat and sitting under a heat lamp while we wait for summer.

Making the most of your data as an unsigned artist; the complete guide for 2018

As a fledgling artist in today’s music industry you have a lot on your plate. Booking gigs, building a fanbase, liaising with the press, making sure your drummer turns up to rehearsals, and the small matter of crafting drop-dead-gorgeous tracks that stun the world into awed reverie. You probably think that adding ‘data-management’ to that list is a little unreasonable.

We do sympathise, but if you want to forge a music career today, whether as an independent artist or by signing a record deal with a label, it’s vital to have a good handle on your data.

To help you get to grips with this most un-artistic of topics, we’ve created this detailed guide to the state-of-play in 2018.

It covers everything that’s happening in the music businesses with regards to your data, how it’s being used to influence major decisions, and what you can be doing – right now – to ‘own’ your data and make it work harder for you.

Regardless of where you are now in your career, the more you understand your data and how to use it your advantage, the bigger and better things can become in the months and years ahead.

How your data is being used in 2018

Like it or not, data is now a key part of who you are as an artist. It influences how you are perceived by your peers, can open and close doors and windows of opportunity, and could ultimately hold the key to all your hopes and dreams around your career.

No biggie then!

The mountain of data produced by streaming services, like Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, combined with social media mentions and YouTube views, has created an avalanche of information.

It’s being used every day to make important business decisions, from which tracks get released and where artists tour, down to simple design and merch ideas like which lyrics get printed on a t-shirt.

2016/17 – a watershed moment for the music industry

One of the biggest changes in recent years has been the explosion of streaming.

After years of struggling sales and fretting about the disruptive influence of digital technology, the music industry posted double digit growth for the first time in over a decade, and this is almost entirely down to streaming’s exponential growth.

Streaming now accounts for more than 50% of all UK music consumption. Meanwhile, in one day alone, more music is streamed in the US than downloaded in an entire year.

Although Spotify has been around a while now – it launched in 2008, followed by Deezer in 2009 and Apple Music in 2015 – something happened recently that’s tipped streaming over the edge.

This means that your streaming data, more than social media and YouTube, is probably the biggest indicator for any record company, artist management, tour organiser or venue promoter of your perceived value as an artist.

It’s so important we recently overhauled our entire Stats & Activity page to include a brand-new trends graphs to show our artists more streaming data than ever.

Whereas we used to show your Spotify streams a few days after the first stream of your track, we now show streaming data from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Google Play AND download stats from iTunes and Amazon all in the one place.

We also tripled the amount of historical data available, showing three months’ worth of figures rather than one.

One of the big drivers behind streaming has been the coming of age of the ‘Young Millennials’.

Unlike their more piratically-minded older siblings, the latest crop of 16-19-year olds are overwhelmingly positive about paying for music and have made Spotify their platform of choice.

A recent survey found that 67% of them think music is worth paying for, compared to 56% of music lovers overall.

It also found that this age group are overwhelmingly found on Spotify. 53% of 16-19-year olds regularly use Spotify to listen to music, compared to 47% who use YouTube.

If you suspect that 16-19-year olds are going to be your biggest fans, you need to be thinking of Spotify as your main platform for of choice.

Think about boosting your presence by pushing fans there from your social media platforms. It might go without saying, but you should also keep optimising your Spotify Artists Page.

Keep your bio regularly updated, keep posting playlists and make sure you select the right ‘artists pick’ track. We’ve got a great Spotify For Artists Guide that tells you how to manage all of that.

If you are focussing on a record deal, it also means that it makes sense to focus the bulk of your efforts on nurturing your streaming platforms rather than selling digital downloads.

Does this mean that Scouts only care about streaming numbers?

A&R Scouts stake their reputation on an artist when they get behind them. Although your data stats are going to have an influence on how you are perceived across the industry, scouts are still going to make a gut-based decision about you as an artist, and your music.

Although they can bring you to people’s attention they are not the be-all-and-end-all. However, you should be should be nurturing them like a new-born baby.

“Data is invaluable to independent artists who want to create a career from their music, enabling strategic and well developed artistic and financial decisions to be made,” says Spinnup UK Scout Trenton. “At the heart of this however is the actual music, which is without a doubt the most important thing for scouts. Yes, data is useful for driving and maximising independent music, but there is still a huge importance on great artists and the creation of great music in the industry.”

What about independent artists?

The good news is that big data isn’t just useful to music business executives.

It’s never been easier to build a fanbase, and artists who make an independent living are expected to grow massively over the coming years.

The real value of your data lies in getting a sense of the types of content that resonate with your audience.

Do some platforms work better for you than others? Do some tracks resonate differently on YouTube than, say, Soundcloud?

Understanding this data allows artists to make better strategic decisions and waste less time and effort trying to second guess what will or won’t work.

It also allows you to manage multiple touchpoints with your fans more effectively, especially as you get busier over time.

At Spinnup we’ve included huge amounts of social media stats, so you can track the number of fans and followers you have multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud and YouTube.

We’ve also added Plays and Views from SoundCloud and YouTube as well as downloads from iTunes and Amazon.

Good data allows you to connect all the dots and makes sure you are making the most of your key channels; those platforms where new fans are waiting to discover your music.

Action Plan; 5 things you need to be doing with your data right now

1: Own it!

If you don’t know you can’t act. You need to commit to taking ownership. Don’t rely on someone else to do it for you, especially in the early stages of your career.

2: Use a data management tool

Keeping on top of your data can be time consuming, particularly if you have to log-in to multiple platforms to get it. Make sure you pick a tool that covers the ‘4 Vs’:

Volume – it can handle an explosion of data

Variety – it can pull in data from multiple sources

Velocity – it can keep you updated in real time

Veracity – it provides a picture you can trust

Added to that should be accessibility. Having your data at your fingertips, while you’re out gigging or recording, will help you make real time decisions while you’re on the move.

3: Book tours and gigs in the right places; break new ground

Now you know where you’re popular, you can start booking gigs where it matters. We’re creating a new feature right now that will break down your streams by geography – so you could soon be booking that tour of Serbia!

4: Build partnerships

Smart artists are looking to partner with others, so they can swap support slots where they are not so popular and cross-pollinate audiences.

EDM artists have been doing this for years when releasing tracks. Partnering with artists with big followings in different territories gives them a platform and lets them piggy-back on their partner’s popularity. It’s why you see so many tracks FEAT. multiple artists.

5: Boost your channels where it makes sense to do so

If you see a sudden boost in popularity on a certain platform, use your social media presence to push your fans to that channel.

This week we’re hopping over the pond to introduce you to an American singer-songwriter who has been keeping us entertained with a series of releases over the past year. The 19 year old Nashville-based Bethany Ann joined Spinnup to release her debut single ‘What I Wish I’d Done‘, a gorgeous piano-led power ballad with vocals that pack a punch. Needless to say we were paying attention!

Two more singles and an EP later and we have Vicennial, Bethany’s brand new EP that she released in early January to start 2018 with a bang. The pastel and candy colours of Vicennial‘s artwork are matched by the opening track ‘Birthday‘, a fun and energetic track to celebrate Bethany’s entry to her 20’s. Each of the six tracks on the EP bring their own distinct style to the table, switching from bubbly pop beats to more mature and sophisticated melodies, but always coming back to the overarching themes of growth and exploration that Bethany has curated from start to finish.

For us the superstar of Vicennial has to be ‘Nobody Loves Me When They’re Sober‘, an honest but fun piece of songwriting that sees minimalist electronic-tinged production sit perfectly Bethany’s intimate vocal, drawing the listener in from the delicate opening right through to the powerful bridge at the end

The internet is a wide and wonderful(and weird) place, but let’s face it sometimes with the sheer amount of information, music, memes and cat videos, it’s just too hard to keep up with everything that’s going on. In an effort to combat that we are starting a wrap up of everything that went down in the world of Spinnup, music, and beyond at the end of each month. If you come across anything for next month you think we should include, shoot us an email at blog@spinnup.com

The best of the blog

If you think you’re ready for the summer festival circuit, read our guide to the best UK music festivals for up and coming musicians in 2018, including how to apply and application deadlines.

Do you have a great release ready to upload? Make sure you give it an A+ package with good cover art, we’ve got some tips on how to get it done.

Plus we introduced you to some of our favourite new acts, Scottish electro-pop duo Chuchoter (that’s French for ‘whisper’ ooh la la), German act To Be We who are releasing one single a week(!), and up and coming Swedish rapper taking Spotify by storm, Saimon Kay.

Music industry news

Good news hip-hop artists (and fans!) – A recent Nielsen Music study has found that hip-hop surpassed rock as 2017’s biggest genre! Read more

Spotify recently git 70 million paying subscribers, which means as a Spinnup artist you have 70 million potential fans to reach with your releases! Read more

Remember what we said above about album artwork? This could be getting even better with Spotify testing a new feature that replaces static artwork with GIF-like loop videos. Read more

Mental Health is a serious issue in the music industry, and Help Musicians UK are doing all they can to help musicians (it’s in the name really) by launching a new operation in Scotland. Read more

Facebook is making some big changes to the newsfeed, which could have an adverse effect on how your fans see your artist page. Read more

Native Instruments launches Sounds.com, a new samples library for you to use in your music production. Read more

Amazon Music Unlimited is coming to Australia and New Zealand next month, which means your music could reach more ears down under! Read more

Our favourite January Spinnup releases

Mezzanine, the self-titled double track single from a new French act to join Spinnup

Here at Spinnup we are all about getting new artists and bands discovered, and while Spinnup is a great way to get your music heard it’s not the only way! Music festivals are a great opportunity to play to large audiences and get discovered by a whole new category of fans. Plus you’ll gain more fans whilst having heaps of fun.

Below we have put together a list of some great festivals across the UK and further afield that you may be interested in applying for. The best part is that you don’t even have to spend hours searching how to apply – we’ve done all the hard work for you!

But before we jump in, here are some things to consider before/when applying to a festival. Good luck!

Can you play those dates?

It seems obvious, but it’s the most important of them all! You will save a lot of hassle knowing way in advance if you and your band mates are actually available to play that particular date.

Consider travel.

How are you going to get there? If a particular festival is that little bit further away you may want to consider potential travel costs. It’s great if you’re offered a slot, but what’s the point if you can’t get there?

Will your music suit this festival?

For example, would your hip-hop vibes suit a heavy rock festival? Be realistic and don’t waste your time or theirs by applying to a festival you’re music isn’t appropriate for.

Let the music do the talking.

Make sure you send your best tracks in the application! Choose quality over quantity (bot send more than 1 track, obvs)

Demonstrate your best achievements.

Show best achievements to date – maybe you’ve supported a well-known band, you’ve had radio play or even been given a fantastic review. Showing a good history live performances will also demonstrate that you are able to deliver in a live setting.

Make yourself easy to find

When you apply, make sure to include all relevant links to your website, social media, artist profiles (for example, your Spotify artist page). You can even use your Spinnup artist profile, where you can combine all of these!

Make sure everything is up to date with current photos, the latest info on your releases and/or live shows so the festival can get the best picture of where you’re at.

What do you need to include?

Carefully check what the application requires from you and make sure you don’t miss any important information!

Here are some important pointers if you land a coveted slot.

– Rehearse rehearse rehearse! You’re going to want to be really tight for this so make sure you get plenty of prep in beforehand.

– Put together an awesome setlist; remember you’re probably playing to a more varied bunch than usual, so be sure to play some of your best crowd-pleasers.

– Be sure to make a good impression – you don’t know who could be at this festival – scouts, press, promoters for example, so don’t be late to your slot and it’s probably not a good idea to get too drunk beforehand]!

– Get equipment ready – imagine, your set is going amazingly, the crowd is ever expanding and you’re having the time of your lives and then one of your leads blows. Make sure that you have spares and backup gear, either supplied by yourselves or the festival, checking everything works beforehand!

FESTIVALS

MAY

Big Love is a small, independent three-day festival set in and around a big country mansion near Hay-on-Wye (on the Wales/England border). The festival boasts a DIY attitude, promising a weekend of live music, parties, discos and great street food, all around a natural environment!

The Great Escape takes place in Brighton and Hove, showcasing over 400 up and coming artists of a variety of genres from all over the world, as well as hosting three days of industry talks and conferences. This is THE festival for artists wanting to get discovered by fans and the industry

JUNE

Okay we may not be geographers but we are well aware this one isn’t exactly in the UK, but it’s a great one nonetheless! Sweden Rock Festival takes place outside Sölvesborg in Blekinge, offering the best mix of rock genres from classic rock to blues.

Latitude is a festival packed with the very best from Music and the Arts, including theatre, comedy, poetry, dance and literature. It is set in Henham Park, Suffolk, but said to be more similar to European Festivals.

Nozstock is hosted at Rowden Paddocks Farm near Bromyard, Herefordshire. It is an independent arts and music festival with of a variety of stages including a hip-hop stage, a spoken word and circus tent and a psytrance stage.

‘Hon Vet’ has been live in stores for barely a month and has already earned over 80,000 streams on Spotify alone, with the accompanying video sitting at close to 15,000 views on YouTube. All this within a month and with zero marketing – just goes to show how much traction an independent artist can gain

Over the past year our small team has grown to include a group of amazing techy-types who have been working hard to improve the Spinnup service, including how we supply your release data to you. Hint: it’s a lot better now.

Here we’ll explain:

• What new data you can access in your artist account • What this means for you and how you can use it to your advantage

Our brand new trends graphs now show you more data than ever. Here you have always been able to track your Spotify streams a few days after the first stream of your track. But now, thanks to our new tech gurus you are able to see streaming data from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Google Play AND download stats from iTunes and Amazon all in the one place. Not only that, the data we provide now goes back even further, with three months’ worth of figures – that’s triple what we used to have!

What’s new?

At the top of the screen you can toggle between streams or downloads to try and gauge how people are consuming your music. The Streams option will display streaming trend figures for Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Google, whereas the download option will change the graph to display only iTunes and Amazon download sales.

Once you have chosen which type of trend you want to display, you can then choose to view the figures & graph for all releases, or choose an individual release (or track) from the middle drop down menu. Each time you change which release to view, the Total Streams figures and the graph will change to show the data for that specific release.

The third data field is the time period, which can be changed to 1 week, 1 month, both of which show daily streams, and 3 months, which changes to show you weekly streams.

In any option you choose, whether that’s all releases over 3 months, or a specific release over 1 week, you are able to turn particular services on and off. So if you want to see only your Google streams on the graph, just click on the coloured icons of the other three services to turn them ‘off’ – they’ll turn grey so you know which ones you’ve selected. Simply click on each icon again to turn them back on.

Okay cool, but why is this better?

You can now easily compare streaming services by having them all on the one graph, and see on which platform you have the most fans and streams. For example if you stream higher on Deezer than Spotify, it might be worth putting a bit more love into your Deezer Artists profile

Downloads are always worth more than streams, here you can easily compare the two figures and if you know how much your music is being sold for on roughly estimate how much you’ve earned from that particular service

Being able to go even further back in time means you can compare how your releases perform over time. Are they a hit from day 1 and then lose momentum? Or with a bit of help from social media and playlists do they grow over time?

Over time we’ll be adding even more options for you to narrow down your data (want to know how many streams you’re getting in Serbia? Or downloads in Denmark?… just you wait) to make it even easier for you to analyse how your releases are performing, and be able to capitalise on your successes.

We’ll be back soon with more information including how to read your data, and how to use it to your advantage, and what data means for independent artists.

2018 has begun with a bang for the team at Spinnup France, who have gotten their first artist signing – and the 35th signing for Spinnup!

Congratulations to Nelick, a local urban artist who was recommended to use Spinnup by his manager, Aly, a Scout in the French team!

He released his first Spinnup track, Range Rover, in late 2017, followed by 10 décembre, which was released, well, on the 10th of December. Nelick’s style of rap can be decided as very laid back, with soft melodies and chilled out beats that his voice flows lazily overtop of.

Not wasting any time, Nelick has already dropped his major label debut with his EP KiwiBunnyTape, released on Caroline on Friday January 19. With his February 1st release party already at capacity, we know Nelick is definitely an artist to keep an eye on!

WHO IS NELICK?

Old school versus new school, the opposition is as old as rap itself.

Mixing the boom-bap of the nineties against modern flows and instruments – there is a generation of rappers who find their niche by expertly combining the two, a generation that Nelick flies the flag for.

Having been very active in 2017, with four projects to his name, Nelick saw his star climb online last year. Without much media coverage, this self-produced artist grew his following on social media via not only his music by distinct visual style. The video for “OCEAN 2077” with its off-the-wall imagery and distinct 90’s treatment has earned over 1.7 million views on YouTube!

What impresses us about Nelick’s rap is not just his rhyming talent, but also the relaxed vibe he conveys, like the feeling of summer, injecting a sense of love and fun into his tracks, complete his characteristic cheeky nature. From the first taste of his mixtape, the KiwiBunnyTape, you can feel it has a sweetness to it, not unlike the feeing you get from the video of his 2017 single ‘Range Rover’.

Our new signing does not always work alone, accompanied by talented young artists like himself, Nelick’s other project is PALASS, a duo formed with Lord Esperanza. Together they released the Acid Rose Garden mixtape in 2016.

Having quickly seduced hip hop fans all over France, we are sure it won’t take long for his music to cross country borders and reach even more people around the world. I know that we’ll be waiting eagerly to see what he does next!

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